The book, Plays One: Adaugo, Daring Destiny, Giddy Festival, The Dawn of Full Moon and Withered Thrust, is a compilation of plays by an African female Playwright, Osita Catherine Ezenwanebe Ph. D, an Associate Professor of dramatic Arts, University of Lagos Nigeria, a Visiting Professor and Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence, Winston-Salem State University, North Carolina, USA. It is aimed at making the plays available to her foreign audience who learnt of the plays during her scholarly activities as a Senior Fulbright Visiting Professor in United States of America. The plays are African Total Theatre, a functional and multidimensional view of theatre employing mime, songs, dances, chants, rituals, dialogue, etc. to drive home the message. The plays cover her though about the symbiotic relationship between drama and society and capture the social upheavals in Africa and modern world in general. Her perspective is humanist with a special concern for women and youth. Withered Thrust (2007) captures the pervasiveness of corruption; a social epidemic in which the oppressed employ anarchic ways of survival and social crusaders are infested with the same contagion as those they avowedly oppose, making the future look very bleak. Giddy Festival (2009) extends the theme of social rot and moral decay by focusing on the moral bankruptcy of the ruling class and its consequent atrophy of spirit: the politicians are giddy in merriment, full of empty rhetoric, egotistic, morally perverse, ideologically bankrupt and administratively incompetent; the suffering masses adopt anarchic indifference as a shield, and the law is made to look as an ass, resulting in a high disregard of the dignity of the human person. The drum beats, heralding the joyous moment of the power bloc; simultaneously, disjointed bones are fall-offs from the drum beat of their merriment. What a giddy festival! The Dawn of Full Moon (2009) brings a light of hope in the state of woman in many societies of the world where they still labor under the yoke of oppression. The play celebrates the sanctity of womanhood by dramatizing the dark days of a helpless, less privileged teenage girl and her victorious triumph when she blossoms like the dazzling brightness of full moon; strong, forceful and irresistible. It is a play deliberately meant to instill hope and confidence in women and youths. The Dawn of Full Moon also recreates the revolutionary love necessary for sustaining communal ties and gender complementarity. 2. In Adaugo (2011) the playwright deconstructs the suppressive oppression of women embedded in the rigidity of traditional social roles of male breadwinning and female home keeping in modern world and presents it as a major source of crisis in gender relation. By making the female protagonist, Adaugo, excel in both roles at a time her husband could not perform his due to circumstances beyond his control, the playwright celebrates the strength of women and calls for a change in the conception of masculinity in the face of modern experiences. In all, the play upholds the complementarity of the sexes which the playwright sees as imperative for traditional family and communal life. 3. Daring Destiny is a play that advocates Spartan courage and tenacity of purpose as the surest means of achieving a desirable destiny. It dramatizes the fate of the youth in a state where years of misrule has given way to anarchy. Mindless politicians and vicious capitalists cripple the people to penury and turn the youth into expendable cannon folders thereby setting up frightening destiny as their future. The youth are urged to dare such destiny and never give in to despair.

I always thought when the apocalypse finally began I would be swinging my baseball bat at the zombies with the best of them. I was prepped and ready to smash in some undead heads if the need ever arose. The problem is—no one ever warned me that I would have to dread the humans even more. The ones who still remember their names and how to put a gun to your temple when they want something. Do not fear the Withered Ones. Fear the ones still human. This is an omnibus edition featuring the first three books in The Withered series: Wither, Resurrect and Affliction. Wither After an epidemic swept across the nation, the government foolishly rushed the creation of a vaccine—but what was meant to bring salvation instead brought damnation. Human mutations birthed a new species, but Avery Whitlock soon learned that the top threat against her survival was not the Withered Ones—but the ones still human. Resurrect After enduring a kidnapping, brutal gang attacks and the death of the man she loved, Avery Whitlock believed she could survive anything—until she discovered that she was being hunted. The Withered had mutated and she had reason to believe that evolution couldn’t be stopped—especially when it was genetically engineered. Affliction No longer fully human, but unwilling to accept her fate as a flesh-eating zombie, Avery Whitlock abandoned the only place she could call home in order to save the man she loved from herself. Driven to prevent anyone else from suffering her fate, she stalked the doctor's responsible for the mutations—but with each life she took, her cravings amplified and her grip on humanity slipped.

This book showcases the important, but often understudied, work of Nigerian women playwrights. As in many spheres of life in Nigeria, in literature and other creative arts the voices of men dominate, and the work of women has often been sidelined. However, Nigerian women playwrights have made important contributions to the development of drama in Nigeria, not just by presenting female identities and inequalities but by vigorously intervening in wider social and political issues. This book draws on perspectives from culture, language, politics, theory, orality and literature, to shine a light on the engaged creativity of women playwrights. From the trail blazing but more traditional contributions of Zulu Sofola, through to contemporary postcolonial work by Tess Osonye Onwueme, Julie Okoh, and Sefi Atta, to name just a few, the book shows the rich variety of work being produced by female Nigerian dramatists. This, the first major collection devoted to Nigerian women playwrights, will be an important resource for scholars of African theatre and performance, literature and women’s studies.

In this post-apocalyptic sci-fi horror series opener, zombies and humans alike threaten the future for a tough young woman. After an epidemic swept across America like a biblical plague, the government leapt into the fray with the release of a new vaccine—but what was meant to bring salvation to the survivors instead brought damnation. Mutations began within days of the drug’s release, and the Withered Ones were born—those neither alive nor dead. They walked the streets, unblinking and unaware. And they were starting to evolve. Growing up on the streets taught Avery Whitlock how to care for herself, but nothing could have prepared her for the outbreak of deadly gangs, a corrupt government bent on using her blood for experiments and the depths to which desperate people would go to survive. She soon discovered that it was not the Withered Ones that she needed to fear, but those still human. The ones who knew how to put a gun to her head when they wanted something from her. Avery was forced to decide how far would she be willing to go to survive just one more day . . .

The most beloved and popular collection in the realm of juvenile fiction. Each tale entertains, teaches and leaves a mark on the reader's heart and mind. Andersen blends together gentle humour, irony and fantasy to bring us characters that have enchanted readers through the ages. The best feature of these stories is that they teach useful lessons without being overtly moralistic. Utterly delightful!